Qualcomm’s FLO TV launches gadget for watching TV on the go
Qualcomm’s FLO TV division is launching a gadget to deliver live mobile TV service for people on the run.
The FLO TV Personal Television will play TV that is available through Qualcomm’s own dedicated mobile TV network. The dedicated device will not be a phone; its sole purpose is to let people view TV news, sports, children’s shows, and movies. It will be available for the holiday season for $249.99 and a subscription fee of $8.99… Continue Reading
Analog is dead! Long live digital TV!
All hail, all hail. Digital TV has arrived. Today is the day broadcasters nationwide shut off their analog TV signals and replace them with digital TV.
Most of the nation has converted to some form of digital TV, but an estimated 2.8 million households are still stuck on analog.
Some news outlets are following the transition around the country. The original deadline for the transition was in February, but Congress extended it to give people more time… Continue Reading
Smart phone demand drives Qualcomm to raise financial estimates
Strong demand for smart phones has prompted high-end mobile chip maker Qualcomm to upgrade its revenue and income targets for the third quarter.
This is a big deal since most other categories of component makers are still have troubles because of the recession. Smart phones are evidently one of the few bright spots in the economy.
Revenues for the San Diego, Calif., company’s third fiscal quarter ending June 28 are estimated to be $2.67 billion to $2.77… Continue Reading
Qualcomm’s live mobile TV service goes nationwide on Friday
Qualcomm’s live mobile TV service, FLO TV, goes national on Friday as the digital TV transition frees airwaves for new technologies.
San Diego-based mobile tech company Qualcomm said the service can now reach more than 200 million potential viewers, who can use cell phones to watch live TV. The digital TV transition, where TV signals will move from the older analog wave signals to digital signals, will take place on June 12.
Qualcomm said FLO TV is… Continue Reading
Nvidia trumpets success of its Tegra cell phone processors
Nvidia is becoming a real player in portable mobile devices as the industry embraces its Tegra processors. The company is announcing today that some of the world’s biggest gadget manufacturers are designing mobile devices using the Tegra chips.
And the interesting thing is, the first major adopters of these chips for mobile Internet devices, or MIDS, are expected to be cell phone carriers, not the computer makers who are Nvidia’s traditional customers.
At the Computex show in… Continue Reading
Roundup: Pleo is dead, Twitter spreads swine flu, Google Earth solves plane crash and more
Here’s all the latest action:
Verizon iPhone in the works — Apple and Verizon have been talking about launching an iPhone for the Verizon network as early as next year. USA Today has the story.
Tragedy strikes as Pleo, the magic dinosaur, is liquidated — Ugobe, maker of robotic dino Pleo, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will liquidate its intellectual property.
Cleantech funding not so miserable — Investor Rob Day questions the reported 84 percent drop in cleantech investing… Continue Reading
Qualcomm will pay $891 million to Broadcom to settle patent disputes
Qualcomm will pay $891 million to Broadcom in a patent dispute settlement, the chip companies announced today.
The deal will settle all pending litigation between the companies worldwide. The companies were in a state of legal warfare over cell phone and other tech patents in the U.S., Europe and Korea. San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm will pay the money to Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom over four years. Qualcomm will make the first $200 million payment in the second… Continue Reading
Car battery maker A123 scores $15M more from GE
A123 Systems, maker of lithium-ion batteries — primarily for hybrid and electric cars — has nabbed another $15 million in funding from General Electric, marking the seventh time the conglomerate has invested in the capital-rich startup. This brings the total of A123’s recent round of financing to $69 million.
The Watertown, Mass.-based company says it plans to use the money to construct battery factories in Michigan close to its key automotive clients. These days, it’s rare… Continue Reading
Obopay scores $70M from Nokia for mobile payments
Obopay, provider of a mobile service that lets people transfer money to one another through text messages, just received an investment from Nokia, estimated at $70 million. [Update: It turns out that not all of this money came from Nokia, as most people reported. There were other undisclosed investors involved. TechCrunch suggests that several of Obopay's old-faithful firms also chipped in, including Qualcomm, Redpoint Ventures, Onset Ventures and Richmond Management, but nothing has been confirmed.]… Continue Reading
Wireless media delivery co. Digital Fountain sells to Qualcomm
Digital Fountain, a company specializing in sending media over wireless networks — especially streaming video — just sold to San Deigo goliath Qualcomm. It’s unclear whether the flagging economy played a role, but the Fremont, Calif. company may have been running short on funds. It had raised a total of $45 million over several rounds of funding since its inception in 1999, most recently pulling in $5 million in a fifth pass in 2004. Past… Continue Reading
Qualcomm cuts deals for its Mirasol displays
Qualcomm made about eight different announcements at the Mobile World Congress today, but most interesting was news of the company’s progress Mirasol displays, which are based on a new way of capturing light with micro-electro-mechanical semiconductor (MEMS) technology.
Qualcomm said it’s working with LG Electronics to develop Mirasol-enabled cell phones that use much less power than today’s liquid crystal display-based cell phones. Qualcomm also has separate deals with Inventec and Cal-Comp, a subsidiary of Taiwanese phone… Continue Reading
AMD sells cell phone graphics business to Qualcomm for $65 million
Advanced Micro Devices is doing what it can to keep from taking on water. Hurt by a bruising battle with Intel, AMD agreed to sell off its handheld graphics business and multimedia assets to Qualcomm for $65 million.
The move will give San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm a more complete arsenal of chip assets that it can integrate into a single chip for running a cell phone. AMD will get more cash as it makes progress toward… Continue Reading
Tela closes $5.5M to scale semiconductor manufacturing
Tela Innovations, a Campbell, Calif. firm working to streamline semiconductor designs and manufacturing, has added three investors to close a $5.5 million third round of funding, reports VentureWire. The new backers, Cadence Design Systems, KT Venture Group and Qualcomm, join past contributors Intel Capital, AsiaTech Management, Sand Hill Finance, Teton Capital Group and Western Technology Investment.
The company plans to use the money to commercialize its semiconductor designs, aimed at efficiently scaling their processes.
Siimpel raises $8.7M for mobile cameras
Siimpel, manufacturer of highly-precise and low-power mobile and digital cameras, took in an $8.7 million tranche of an expected $16 million investment round, according to regulatory filings. Contributors included Qualcomm, Zone Venture Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund, and a handful of individuals.
Earlier this month, the Arcadia, Calif. company announced the development of micro-electro-mechanical-sysetems (MEMS) techonology that would be best used in mobile devices. In the past, it has received funding from DOCOMO Capital, the venture… Continue Reading
Roundup: More cuts at Yahoo, food cuts at Google and more
Here’s the latest action:
More job cuts coming at Yahoo? — Chief executive Jerry Yang has hired consultants from Bain to get the organization “fit.” It’s not likely that means more exercise. SAI has more.
More food benefits slashed at Google – While Yahoos may be losing their jobs, Googlers are just losing select food privileges. Valleywag has more.
Broadcom wins another battle against Qualcomm — The chipmaker scores another victory after a judge rules that Qualcomm is infringing on… Continue Reading
Capturing the scene at the SD Visionary Awards
Once a year venture capitalist Heidi Roizen and her husband Dave Mohler open up their Woodside villa to host the SD Forum’s Visionary Awards honoring pioneers of Silicon Valley. Each time I attend, I’m mesmerized by the estate and its furnishings, from the Moroccan guest house with its old rifle collection to the Tuscan villa architecture with its zany mix of animal head trophies.
Upon walking up the long driveway into the foyer of the mansion,… Continue Reading
Adobe and Qualcomm BREW up a mobile partnership
Adobe has taken another step in its plan for domination of the mobile world — it just announced a partnership that should make it easier to create applications for the Adobe Flash runtime in Qualcomm’s BREW mobile software platform.
This partnership is presumably part of Adobe’s Open Screen Project, which was announced in April and is the company’s initiative to make Flash the ubiquitous environment for mobile devices. A big part of that initiative involves deals… Continue Reading
Roundup: More earnings reports, accelerating emissions, Russian censorship and more
Here’s the latest action:
More earnings info — While we wrote earlier about Microsoft’s earnings, plenty of other companies are posting theirs, too. Motorola disclosed that its market share is down to 9.5 percent, while Qualcomm’s profit is up. Amazon’s Q1 profits rose 30 percent, Nintendo profits hit a record high on strong Wii and DS sales, and Juniper Network’s profits leaped 66 percent over last year’s.
Greenhouse gas emissions are accelerating — The rise in atmospheric… Continue Reading
Juice Wireless, offering mobile content sharing, gets more funding
Juice Wireless, a company that lets you send photos, videos and other content to your social network pages from your mobile phone, has been on a rocky ride.
Not only does it face plenty of competition, but it changed tack a year ago and laid off some employees when it aborted a separate marketing business. Yet that hasn’t stopped new investors from coughing up $6 million in new cash, led by 21Ventures.
The company’s mobile widget, called… Continue Reading
Roundup: Planet Google crowded, Verizon backs off, and more
Here’s the latest action:
1) Google facing employee overload
2) Verizon Wireless abandons legal challenge of FCC rules
3) Qualcomm comes up with competition for WiMAX
4) Could Yahoo finally be giving up social networking?
5) Google’s PageRank changes injure startups, again
And a handful of fundings:
6) Linkstorm raises $4.2 million from 60 angels
7) JibJab takes a further $3 million from Polaris
Zoji receives $1.5 million in seed funding
9) Socialthing raises $300,000 for profile aggregation
Google facing employee overload — Google may be overstocking… Continue Reading